Chris Ofili Quotes

• The studio is a laboratory, not a factory. An exhibition is the result of your experiments, but the process is never-ending. So an exhibition is not a conclusion.

  Chris Ofili

  Exhibitions, Factories, Process

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• In the end, it doesn't really matter what you paint. It's all just a routine to connect yourself finally with other people.

  Chris Ofili

  Art, People, Routine

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• I was listening to a lot of hip hop, music like Public Enemy that was about raising consciousness, and I realised I could feed that directly into my work, using images in a way that was a bit like sampling - taking images from diverse places, exploring the contradictions without trying to hide the seams.

  Chris Ofili

  Hip Hop, Enemy, Listening

  "Chris Ofili: 'I wander deep into the forest - where it's scary'" by Mark Hudson, www.telegraph.co.uk. January 25, 2010.

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• There's a magic that comes from playing entirely to who you are. I've got my specialist subject - in the Mastermind sense - and I wouldn't change it, or who I am.

  Chris Ofili

  Who I Am, Magic, Mastermind

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• There was a point in time where the thought of people even talking about me made me anxious. Physically.

  Chris Ofili

  Talking, People, Made

  "After the elephant dung: Chris Ofili". Interview with Gary Younge, www.theguardian.com. January 15, 2010.

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• The studio is a place where I can experiment before I'm prepared for an idea to become a body of work, or a new way of working, or a way of working that can sustain me over a period of time.

  Chris Ofili

  Ideas, Body, Way

  "A door to freedom" by Chris Ofili, www.theguardian.com. September 20, 2009.

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• When I was painting in art school - and I think many painters in the 1980s worked similarly - a finished painting would often be constructed from lots of other paintings underneath. Some of these individual layers of painting were better than others, but that was something that you would often only realise retrospectively.

  Chris Ofili

  Art, School, Thinking

  "A door to freedom" by Chris Ofili, www.theguardian.com. September 20, 2009.

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• When I left the Royal College, I decided I would only make paintings that I would want to look at myself, that felt close to my life.

  Chris Ofili

  College, Looks, Want

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• Often I think changes within my work have been seen as sudden changes or sharp changes, but for me they're not that sudden. They have been there in the studio, but not so much in public.

  Chris Ofili

  Thinking, Sudden Change, Studios

  "A door to freedom" by Chris Ofili, www.theguardian.com. September 20, 2009.

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• Sometimes, as I feel a door or an exit point in my work is closing, I'll try to create an opening so as not to stifle the creative process, which I see as a process that's never-ending.

  Chris Ofili

  Doors, Creative, Trying

  "A door to freedom" by Chris Ofili, www.theguardian.com. September 20, 2009.

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• I'm aware that success can overwhelm you. The perception of you can be elevated to such a status that it's not you any more.

  Chris Ofili

  Perception

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